So how do Kwaku's kids know that it's FAFO Friday? "They're like, 'oh, we know you're doing the podcast 'cause we just hear you cackling through the walls.'"

So laugh along with Kwaku and me today as we work our way through a quick victory lap (stuff we said would happen last week happened!), why Sam is like that desperate guy at the bar who refuses to go home alone, quantum computing explained via children's literature, why the Jetsons are not reason enough for us to build humanoid robots, robot choreography (are we human or are we dancers?), wen self-driving cars in NY?, riding a wave of green lights up Manhattan's third avenue at 2 AM, artificial wombs and other moonshot off-shoots, and the real origin of Velcro (AI lied to me about it).

Plus... goat ranches, breakfast tacos, and what we're most excited about heading into SXSW. It's a choose your own adventure kind of day.

Chapters

• (01:24) - Victory Lap — We Called It
• (03:35) - OpenAI's Bar Guy Energy
• (06:38) - Waymo, Robot Choreography, and Green Light Waves
• (10:16) - Self-Driving Cars vs. New York Politicians
• (13:13) - What We're Most Excited About at SXSW
• (15:41) - Quantum Computing: Choose Your Own Adventure Edition
• (18:01) - Dire Wolves, Moonshots, and Tech Nobody Sees Coming
• (24:07) - Why Do Robots Need to Look Like Us?
• (29:22) - The SXSW Way-Back Machine
• (36:08) - Increased Regulation: Past, Present, or Future?

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Music by Jonathan Zalben

So, there are dire wolves living on Earth again. They were “de-extincted” by Colossal Biosciences. And today on the show their Chief Science Officer joins me to share her view on why the de-extinction matters — not as a science project, but because it will help solve problems that threaten every species on earth, including us.

Beth Shapiro is the Chief Science Officer at Colossal Biosciences, and she helped to bring back the dire wolf or, as others call it, a gray wolf with 20 genetic edits. There is a fierce debate about what de-extinction even means, and we discuss that, but whatever you call them, there are now three big wolves living in an undisclosed location and they wouldn't be there if not for the DNA that Beth and her team edited. Colossal is also working to bring back the wooly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo and other animals that have long been extinct. Why?

Listen to find out…

Chapters:

• (01:19) - The Most Oprah Question Beth's Ever Been Asked
• (03:04) - Moonshots Require You to Create a Giant List of Problems
• (04:19) - The Things We’ll Solve Along the Way, a la the Original Moonshot… to the Moon
• (05:57) - Beth’s Journey: From Broadcast Journalism to Ancient DNA
• (09:13) - How a Sediment Core Solved a Mammoth Mystery
• (11:36) - Why Charismatic Animals Matter (a.k.a. Why Riz Is Everything)
• (12:38) - What’s Up With Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi?
• (14:19) - But Are They Really “Dire Wolves”? The Controversy Over 20 Genetic Edits
• (21:45) - Should We Do This? Beth's Ethics Framework for Builders
• (23:51) - Advice for Moonshot Builders
• (25:10) - Why We Want Dodos, Mammoths, and Thylacines Back

• Colossal Biosciences
• Beth Shapiro
• PopTech -- a conference I love!

Support Future Around & Find Out

• Follow Dan on LinkedIn
• Get the free Future Around & Find Out newsletter
• Become a paid subscriber and help future proof the podcast!

Sponsor the show?

• Are you looking to reach an audience of senior technologists and decision-makers? Email me: dan@modernproductminds.com

---
Music by Jonathan Zalben

Murderbots, mass layoffs, and media takeovers — all in one news cycle. Anthropic told the Pentagon "we will not accede." Block cut half its workforce overnight. And the Paramount-Warner Brothers deal raises real questions about who's running the media now.

Also, thanks to Nicolás Maduro's fashion sense, Dan's 13-year-old is being called Lil Tator at school and honestly? The kids are all right.

Happy FAFO Friday!

Here's some of what Kwaku Aning and I get into:

• (00:00) - Three Stories Broke Last Night
• (03:16) - Anthropic Tells the Pentagon No
• (06:24) - Murder Bots, But Human in the Loop
• (07:00) - The Pentagon's Friday Deadline
• (09:28) - Why This Is a Huge Win for Anthropic
• (10:50) - The War for AI Talent
• (12:57) - Is the Administration Losing Steam?
• (15:05) - The Paramount-Warner Brothers Deal
• (17:36) - Who Controls the Media Now?
• (21:13) - CNN, Independent Media, and the Employee Perspective
• (23:55) - Block Lays Off 4,000 People
• (24:14) - The Citrini Research Fiction That Tanked Stocks
• (27:49) - AI Washing and the Real Reason for Layoffs
• (30:11) - Will Vibe Coding Replace Real Companies?
• (33:27) - Mid-Roll Break
• (34:41) - Past, Present, Future: State-Controlled AI
• (35:18) - Past, Present, Future: Independent Media
• (38:03) - — SLAPP Lawsuits and Creator Protections
• (40:23) - — Past, Present, Future: Knicks Championship
• (41:44) - — Come See Us at South by Southwest!